


The Difference Time Can Make

by JessicaPendragon



Category: Dragon Age, Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Developing Relationship, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-30
Updated: 2015-10-30
Packaged: 2018-04-29 01:07:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5110835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JessicaPendragon/pseuds/JessicaPendragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When he stayed away/When he never wanted to leave</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Difference Time Can Make

He will never get any sleep and that is just not fine. The screams wake him up in the middle of the night. For a moment he thinks they’re back in Ostagar with the world crashing down, but it is only his tent shivering in the quiet wind. The cry comes again, a ragged, broken thing, and he lights a lantern and climbs out into the dark. The noises come from the her tent and he moves towards it on cautious feet.

“Everything all right in there?” he asks. “Mo- I mean…uh, hello?”

There is no answer but another wretched sob and Alistair takes a breath before dipping inside. The other Grey Warden, maybe the onlyother Grey Warden, thrashes in the hold of her blanket, fists clenched to the edge of her pillow and face scrunched in pain from whatever nightmare plagues her.

Alistair hovers for a few seconds, unsure what to do, before he kneels down and reaches for her shoulder. “It’s just a dream, wake up. Wak-”

He’s pulled forward and feels the touch of cold steel against his neck. The light tumbles from his fingers and lays askew to cast her face in sharp, dangerous shadows. Moira breathes hard, brows drawn down towards furious eyes. 

Alistair holds up his hands and feels the dagger dig into skin as he swallows. “It’s just me. Nothing to worry about. Only a dream.” 

Clarity returns to her gaze like the crack of a whip and she lowers her arm. Moira looks away, an unsteady sigh spiraling from her mouth. “No…no it wasn’t,” she whispers, voice coarse with unshed tears. 

“What-”

“Get out.”

“I-”

“Get out!” she screams and he doesn’t protest. He all but falls back into the night. When they break camp the next day, she doesn’t apologize, nor even glance his way for most of the trek towards Lothering. The bright face paint she wears and the memory of her anger keeps him at bay and he swears from now on he’ll avoid this viper as much as he can.

-

He never wants to leave her side. Fingers run across, tracing, memorizing, cherishing the feel of her beside him. He forgets about the long journey behind them, the battles still left to face. There is only the now somewhere between impossible and right as they lay together inside the tent.

She shifts and for a brief moment he fears she’ll leave and grips tighter to her bare waist. “Don’t leave.”

She smiles, soft and slow in the afterglow. “I-”

“Don’t ever leave,” he says and kisses her forehead. Moira gives a short laugh before scooting even closer, arms and legs tangling with his own. 

“I’m not going anywhere, Alistair.” She kisses his nose, his cheek, his chin. Bright bolts of pleasure roll down his spine when she slants her mouth against his. He groans as her hips press with heated suggestion and pulls his lip from her gentle teeth.

“Tell me this isn’t a dream.”

She laughs again, leaning in to leave kisses against his neck. They are warm, tingling. “It isn’t a dream.” 

His whole body shivers at the contact and he wonders what ever possessed him to stay away from her this long. There is nothing more perfect than this. They clutch to one another, rolling atop the blankets and pillows, and he knows they have found a home within each other’s arms. She is his family, his only true family, and he wishes he would have realized it sooner. 

“Moira,” he whispers into her mouth and this moment is more than anything he could ever want.

She pushes him down into the bedroll and the light from the lantern makes her glow. His fingers roam up the sides of her flared hips, into the dip of her waist, and she moans, deep and full, as his touch pioneers further. The world falls away again with the touch of her lips. He loses himself as their sighs fill the dead of night and knows he will never get any sleep, but that’s just fine.


End file.
